Michael White, who was born in Chicago and received his musical education at The Juilliard School, is an expert on the life and music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The book which he is now writing (Imaginary Letters: Mozart Remembered) alludes to his "lifetime of research, teaching, listening and -- most of all -- admiring and loving Mozart and his music" which Mr. White calls his "first and last love."

But devotion to Mozart has never limited Mr. White’s vision. Since studying composition at Juilliard with Peter Mennin and Vincent Persichetti, he has composed music in virtually every medium with an emphasis on vocal works. One of his operas, "Diary of Madwoman," was commissioned and premiered in Riga, Latvia. Another, "The Dybbuk," had its premiere at the World’s Fair in Seattle. A third, "The Metamorphosis," was first performed at the Theater of Living Arts in Philadelphia. Mr. White has also written a children’s opera based on the stories of Lewis Carroll in "Through the Looking Glass." Other compositions include a large number of chamber works, song cycles and his recent Concerto for Viola. He has received multiple awards and grants for his compositions, including three Ford Foundation Fellowships and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Grants have come from the Soros Foundation, the Fels Foundation, the Arts Councils of New York and Pennsylvania, ASCAP, the Oberlin Conservatory and UNESCO.

Mr. White has also lectured extensively for the New York Philharmonic, the New York Youth Symphony and for music festivals in Bowdoin, Maine; Rockport, Massachusetts and Long Island, among others. He music articles have appeared in newspapers and journals. He has taught on the faculties of the Oberlin Conservatory and the Philadelphia Musical Academy where he served as chairman of the Composition and Theory Department. Since 1979 he has been on the graduate faculty at Juilliard where he served ten years as Chairman of the Department of Literature and Materials of Music.

Through it all, he says, the music of Mozart has remained "a true obsession." And he adds, "There is no question that Mozart’s well-known love for the viola inspired the decision to compose tonight’s work." A Viola Quartet premiered in New York in 2002 and is dedicated to the violist, Ju Lee, who studied with the legendary Karen Tuttle at Juilliard.

"In this work," writes Mr. White, "I have attempted to compress into one continuous movement what would normally be the contrasting materials of four distinct movements. Hopefully, this approach will create a sense of unity and cohesion. The structure of this work is a free ternary form (ABA). Two slow sections, both lyrical and dramatic, frame a central core of fast, syncopated ‘dance’ music. Above all, I have tried to write music that would capture the spirit of this very special instrument, the viola, with its unique richness, warmth, lyricism, and a texture of ‘dark velvet’."